Levi, Rosalyn & friends become better artists by drawing one picture a day.

Month: May 2016

Welcome to the Summer of Miyazaki! We’re doing something special on the Culturezoo Podcast this summer and we’re going to discuss all the films of animator/writer/director Hayo Miyazaki. Each week we’ll be going through his films in chronological order of their release date and examining common themes and ideas in addition to the unique details of each film.

On today’s episode Levi and Rosalyn cover Miyazaki’s first feature-length film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and yet we end up talking about Tolkien and fairy tales for most of the podcast.

On this episode of Culturezoo we discuss the Cartoon Network animated miniseries, Over the Garden Wall. It’s one of our favorite cartoons in recent memory. Heavy spoiler alert for this podcast.

After going through the episodes we chat about the hidden meanings and allusions in this cartoon and finally wonder why more fantasy creators aren’t mining American history to create equally unique settings and stories.

I finished a sketchbook! I loved the quality of this notebook. The pages weren’t see through and I loved the size. The larger sized page was inspiring. It was a Strathmore Drawing pad. 50 sheets, 70lb, 11X14 in.

I started it in Janurary, so 50 pages in 5 months is pretty unimpressive but life gets busy and I have been busy using my creative time sewing lately.

I don’t think I will share all 50 pages, tad boring, but instead a recap of what I learned, etc.

I was feeling quite uninspired and defeated when I bough this pad so I decided to go ahead and blatantly copy some art I found inspiring. It was fun. The artist is @kelseyjbeckett on Instagram. Her stuff is beautiful. Here are a few of my shamefull little copies.

Then I used her style to draw from some photo references;

Then I bought a Mucha book and was awed by his art so decided to copy him too. I am obviously a complete fraud.

Tried a few water colors and was frustrated.

Towads the end of this pad I decided to try some loose sketching without reference, which was very fun. Around this time I also relaized I had been using a super lame pencil for sketching. The soft pencil really helps me to sketch much looser and more fluid.

So, I am on to a new notebook! I can get discouraged and frustrated when I compare my drawing to other people’s, but then I remember I am drawing because I love the process, and I love being creative, not because I have to reach some nebulous level of expertise.